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New York Giants More Likely to Make Noise During NFL Draft than Free Agency

March 9th, 2013 at 1:00 PM By Jen Polashock

Yes, the start of the NFL Free Agency period is set to officially open on Tuesday, March 12 at 4pm, EST. Don’t look for much to transpire on the Big Blue front. At this time of year, more focus is lent to April and the 2013 NFL Draft.

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin spoke of many things from his familiar seat at the recent NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. He almost always sits in the same seat: eight rows up and four seats in, near the 10-yard line. Coughlin claims it’s close, he’s able to see, he can check out the demeanor of the players and, most importantly, he’s able to concentrate. He has his own stopwatch, but oddly uses it to time guys after only 10 yards.

“I’m not worried about anything else ‘cause others have got that [40] time and they bring that to me. What I like to do is I, ya' know, write it down and boom, get ready for the next guy,” Coughlin said.

Coughlin isn’t the only blue coach that frequents the combine. Many know and see Giants tight ends coach, Mike Pope work with his contingency players as well as offensive line coach Pat Flaherty working with the prospective linemen. This year, defensive backs coach, Peter Giunta was mike’d up and with his Massachusetts accent, gave a Giants-like, motivational speech for the prospects on the cusp of entering pro-football careers.

“You guys have done tremendous jobs so far. You guys know you’re on the job interview of your life, okay? This is what it’s all about. This is a great country we live in. Why? Because we have choices. You do with your life what you wanna do with your life. With the choices you make, come consequences, okay? If you’re about to do something and you’re not sure whether they’re the right or wrong choices, just pretend the most significant person in your life is standing there beside you, is on your shoulder. Would you make that same choice if they were there beside you? Whether it’s your mom, your grandmother, your dad, your older brother – whoever it may be, that’s the most significant person in your whole life; if they’re standing beside you, would you make that same choice? Chances are, if you would, then you’re making the right choice,” Giunta orated. “You’ve got a lot of work to do now – between now and the time you report to a mini camp, to an OTA, to a training camp. This is only the start. You guys have great futures ahead of you. When we pick up the newspaper, or turn on ESPN or NFL Network, any shows, we wanna be hearing the positive things about you guys. There’s too much of the negative stuff goin’ on. Everybody is looking up to you gentlemen right now – that’s why you’re on NFL Network. Everybody in the country is watching you. They’re going to be watching you for the rest of your lives. That’s the price we pay to play in this great game. Take advantage of this great opportunity you have. Choices. Make the good choices.”

While free agency may very well be more “thrilling” due to rumors and the constant reporting over who will sign where and for how much (see: drama), the New YorkFootball Giants will continue to do more of their hard work gearing up for the draft room in April (25th-27th) and building with youth and a certain hunger that accompanies it.

Now that the combine is over, don’t vest too much into those numbers and recorded stats. There’s more. There’s game tape. Many of said prospects will go undrafted and still (eventually) become starters for an NFL team somewhere down the line. Football has been their lives before the combine (or Pro Days) and Sundays certainly aren’t timed with a stopwatch.

9 Responses to “New York Giants More Likely to Make Noise During NFL Draft than Free Agency”

I would rather “make noise” in the draft than to overpay on a sub-par class of free agents. Outside of retaining our own guys, the only guys I would make a run at are mid-level guys that were really depth guys on other teams that could turn into potential “steals” in FA- Phillip Wheeler, Desmond Bryant, Brandon Meyers, Fred Davis, Sammie Hill, Glenn Dorsey or Ricky Jean-Francois – all, with the exception really of Dorsey and Davis are more depth players on their current rosters and simply haven’t really had the shot to shine, similar to the Unicorn. I really think adding a DT of the guys mentioned above and grabbing one of those TE’s if the Unicorn departs gives us a great amount of flexibility in the draft.

He was on the Daily show and had one or two press things about it. It was all over the ESPN NFL site. I thought he was pretty open about it and used the time to talk about his book and the situation of the Giants. I am not trying to take away anything about Coughlin, but he did not just secretely publish a book either.

Haha yeah I was being sarcastic. My twitter feed was filled all week with quotes from every radio show, morning show, comedy show, bingo hall, mass and Magic the Gathering that he was visiting selling his book.